If Approved, A Gabonese Plant Brings Hope For PTSD, Opioid Sufferers

According to a recent Stanford University study, the plant-based psychoactive drug Ibogaine, when combined with magnesium to protect the heart, safely and effectively reduces post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression by over 80% and improves functioning and well-being in veterans with traumatic brain injuries -- Ibogaine is also effective in combating opioid addiction.

Ibogaine is a naturally occurring compound found in the roots of the Gabonese shrub Tabernanthe iboga that Gabonese members of the Bwiti religion have used for centuries in spiritual and healing ceremonies. A 2021 article in Time Magazine stated that psychedelics like Ibogaine are rapidly approaching acceptance in mainstream medicine, and that the plant is one of the most promising psychedelics for defeating addiction.

While Ibogaine treatment has mushroomed in Mexico and a few other nations, in the U.S. Ibogaine remains on the Schedule I list of controlled substances. The official government line is that Ibogaine has no recognized medical benefits and has a high risk of abuse.

While Ibogaine's status in the U.S. may one day be reviewed, Ibogaine is legal or unregulated in Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica, and the Netherlands - Indeed hundreds of facilities offer Ibogaine therapy worldwide.

Meanwhile however, millions of Americans continue to suffer as the U.S. government and the pharmaceutical industry ignore (or suppress) Ibogaine therapy.

According to Martin Shefsky, whose company, mPath Therapeutics, is manufacturing Pharmaceutical grade GMP Certified Ibogaine in Jamaica, the success rate of the nation's 17,000-plus PTSD and opioid treatment centers is extremely low.

Shefsky says the staggering amount of money spent by America's Veterans Administration, in addition to other government agencies and individuals, could be dramatically cut by legalizing Ibogaine treatment in the U.S.

According to Ibogaine co-pioneer Boaz Wachtel, both the U.S. Army and a Dutch national committee have presented data demonstrating that two-thirds of PTSD sufferers are not being helped by current behavioral or pharmaceutical treatments. Switching to Ibogaine, he believes, could save huge sums of money and enable multitudes to lead more productive lives.

To combat the spread of the opioid epidemic, the U.S. Congress has allocated $10.6 billion, mostly through the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, to be spent over a 10-year period. Law enforcement in 2023 alone seized 115 million fentanyl pills – a dramatic increase since the 2017 total seizures of 50,000 fentanyl pills. Pills represented half of all illicit fentanyl seizures in 2023 compared with just 10% in 2017.

The increase in illicit drug trafficking has contributed to the rise in opioid overdoses - According to the National Center for Health Statistics, overdose deaths from opioids rose to 75,673 in a 12-month period ending in April 2021 out of a total of 100,306 total drug overdose deaths. The government also reported that about 9 million Americans misused opioids in 2023.

Additionally, the Society of Actuaries reported a total economic burden of at least $631 billion over a 3-year period ending in 2018 – yet illicit fentanyl smuggling has increased dramatically since then.

Factors that contributed to the total economic burden included healthcare costs, mortality, criminal justice, family assistance, education, and lost productivity in the labor force.

And the toll from PTSD may be even higher.

The American Psychological Association estimated that the annual cost of PTSD in the U.S. among all U.S. civilians, active-duty military, and veterans was a staggering $232.2 billion in 2018. The national economic burden of PTSD however goes beyond direct health care expenses and exceeds the costs of anxiety and depression.

Boaz Wachtel's journey with Ibogaine began when he was introduced to Howard Lotsoff, who founded the modern Ibogaine movement during the 1980s after he and others had used the drug in the late 1960s to overcome heroin addiction. Wachtel parlayed his combat medical training into a role as a medical authority and treatment provider during the formative years of the Ibogaine movement (until physicians joined in treatments) and co-authored (with Lotsof) the first treatment manual for Ibogaine in 2003.

Shefsky, who first met Wachtel about 15 years ago, asked him to join forces with mPath Therapeutics Chief Development Officer Scott McIntyre, who, as a survivor of a traumatic brain injury, jumped at the chance to bring attention to Ibogaine's historic benefits for victims of trauma suffering from PTSD and addiction disorders.

Shefsky says that mPath Therapeutics is following similar protocols (with adaptations) to the Gabonese Bwiti that he followed with First Nations people in Canada with whom he shared the benefits from his cannabis company. In Jamaica, too, mPath is working with the indigenous Maroons.

Wachtel notes that the demand for Ibogaine has led to poaching of the plant so vital to the Bwiti. mPath is in contrast importing commercially grown iboga that does not jeopardize the Bwiti's supply. mPath also allocates a portion of company profits to support the Bwiti.

mPath ultimately distributes its pharmaceutical GMP-certified Ibogaine HCL, a purified form of iboga, to partnering clinics to provide a safe, secure supply with precise dosing and with regulatory and medical oversight.

Ibogaine's one-off treatment with its short period of therapy is the drug's greatest advantage in treating PTSD, opioid (and alcohol) addiction, and even brain injuries; its treatment modality is in contrast to the pharmaceutical industry's "business model," which is to develop maintenance therapies that are needed for an entire lifetime.

And that fact may explain the lack of interest of big pharma in Ibogaine's clinical development thus far.

Despite its high success rate, getting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to lift the Schedule 1 prohibitions will not be easy - The potential for healing even a fraction of the millions who suffer from PTSD, opioid addiction, and other maladies through properly administered Ibogaine therapy should carry a lot of weight however, but only once more people become aware of its power to give people their lives back.

Unlike other psychedelics, no one will use Ibogaine as a recreational drug. As Lotsof himself said when he realized that Ibogaine took away his desire for heroin without any withdrawal symptoms, "I now viewed heroin as a drug which emulated death. The very next thought in my mind was that I prefer life to death."

Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.